The Great Escapade
by Karana Belle
Summary: A farming job, I wish to grow you some vegetables." Tony smiled. 'A farming job? Hey! That's MY job' Bartz was furious. What happens when two farmers compete for the job? read to find out! chapter two up! (might put more, but most likely not.)
1. Default Chapter

Karana Belle: I know! I'm bad! I shouldn't be writing ANOTHER story, but I just couldn't help it! So this is going to be with Suikoden 2 and 3 characters, mostly from number 3.  
  
Disclaimer: No I don't own any Suikoden games, none at all. –Cries-  
  
The Great Escapade  
  
Chapter One  
  
The morning showed promise to the man getting ready to tend to his gardens. Taking care of Vegetables was his life! Bartz was a normal man; well at least HE thought so. But you know how that is. He always woke up extra early just because he wanted to be with his 'pretties'. At least that's what he calls his plants, no one else called them that, let alone knew that Bartz called them that! The only person that did was Aila who had had a very frightening experience.  
  
Oh no, Bartz wasn't stupid, he was just a little whacked in the head. Which it wasn't really his fault either, his father had been a farmer, and had taught his son with love, the only problem was his dad was insane. So if want to blame it on someone, blame his dad.  
  
So we got to get up early with Bartz and we get to watch his day. Bartz walked towards his garden, the grass still bending under the weight of all the dew; the sun just barely up over the horizon. He had his shears in hand because he was planning to get rid of all the weeds that loved to pop out of the ground at the most unwanted of times.  
  
Coming to his small but humble garden he drew in a big breath of air, a smile on his face. "Hello, my pretties." He bent down to caress the nearest plant, which happened to be a tomato. "Don't worry I will get rid of the nasty, eating weeds who like to take up your growing space. But first you all need water."  
  
Bartz grabbed for the big bucket that he always used and headed down toward the lake to get if filled. He walked briskly and bent down by the water's edge placing the bucket under the water. He could feel the cold water on his hands and he shuddered. It was always cold in the morning, but he braced it, all for his pretties.  
  
After a minute he pulled the bucket out of the water and made his way back up the slope to his lovely garden with all the beautifully growing plants. He poured the water over some of his plants and went back down for more water.  
  
Bartz made several trips just to water his pretties and by the time he was done the sun was already a half way to its zenith. Coming back up to his pretties, he placed the bucket back where it was and looked up at the blue sky, "You know my pretties, the sun is beautiful, but not as beautiful as you." He smiled again and picked up his shears snapping them and glaring at the weeds.  
  
"Alright you evil weeds, prepare for battle!" and with that he started to cut the weeds apart, then digging for their roots and pulling them out and throwing them over his shoulder, laughing maniacally all the while.  
  
After he was done he got up and turned around, wiping his brow free of sweat, and saw a little boy just standing there, eyes wide. Bartz smiled, "Would you like to see them?" he motioned to his pretties. The little boy's brown eyes got wider and he ran away leaving Bartz confused.  
  
"Don't worry my pretties he didn't leave because he didn't love you, oh no, he just had to do something else." Bartz then shrugged, and was about to turn back to his work when he heard a yell.  
  
"Who goes there?"  
  
"That was Cecile, my pretties, I must go and see who is coming. But I will be back soon!" Bartz then ran off towards the entrance of the castle, scaring even more children, for they had all heard from the little boy how freaky he was.  
  
But he didn't notice and skidded to a stop at the back of the crowd of people that came to see what the commotion was about. And sure enough there was Cecile blushing and mouthing something that was most likely 'sorry'. Because Bartz couldn't hear he pushed through the crowd, the people eagerly getting out of his way, they had heard how freaky he was from Iskay Village.  
  
When Bartz got close enough he saw a middle-aged man at about 50 years of age, the brown hair on the man's head had streaks of gray in it, and he had an old hat on his head. Bartz couldn't see the man's eyes because they were crinkled into a smile.  
  
"He looks like a crazy man to me, I shall have to tell my pretties." Bartz muttered under his breath not noticing the strange glance that the woman standing beside him gave him.  
  
Bartz's attention was then drawn again to the man, Cecile and Thomas, who had just come. "What do you want here?" Thomas got right to the point of why the man was here. "And who are you?"  
  
The man cleared his throat, "Ah, forgive me. My name is Tony, I have come to find a job."  
  
Cecile tilted her head, "What kind of job?" she quickly looked at Thomas, confused. They didn't need anyone else that she could think of.  
  
"A farming job, I wish to grow you some vegetables." Tony smiled.  
  
'A farming job? Hey! That's my job!' Bartz was furious, 'How dare anyone try to take my job! I'll see about this!' So jumping forward he called out, "That's MY job! No one else can have it!"  
  
Everyone turned towards him, and Thomas quirked an eyebrow, looking between the two farmers, wondering which one grew better plants, he looked out at the audience, "Have any of you ever eaten...Tony's vegetables?" No one spoke up, so he thought for a minute, his hand raking through his hair.  
  
Then Cecile jumped up and whispered something in Thomas' ear, and the master nodded. 'What are they whispering about I wonder?' Bartz thought, confused as to why Thomas didn't make this other farmer leave.  
  
Thomas cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention, "I have decided to have a contest between these two farmers. Tony will stay for a time, and have a little land to plant on. After both of the farmer's crop are fully grown we will have judges say whose is better." He then turned to Tony and Bartz, "Sound fair to you?"  
  
Tony nodded his graying head and smiled, while Bartz nodded stiffly, angry, 'I shouldn't worry. I will win, because I have my pretties!' So he left all the town's people and the new farmer and made his way back to his plants, a smirk on his face.  
  
Bartz needed to get to work if he wanted to beat that 'Tony'. But first he would need to tell his pretties about what had happened.  
  
Karana: Okay, I know this wasn't that funny, but it will be in later chapters! I promise, I hope you guys enjoyed this, if you're reading it. REVIEW PLEASE! 


	2. Chapter Two

Karana Belle: Just so you all know, this is going to be a short story, maybe 3 chapters long! Okay, Reviewers:  
  
Captain Spam—yeah, I'll agree that Bartz was a little scary with all the 'pretties' so I'll try to make him more non scary!  
  
Izzuddin al-Qassam—I haven't given up! But it was a pretty long wait, no?  
  
The Great Escapade  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Many months had passed since that fateful day. That fateful day that started all the stress for Bartz. 'Why did that man...Tony...have to come and try to be the Farmer? I am the farmer! Doesn't he have his own castle that he could go to?'  
  
Bartz had been working hard to keep his plants in tip-top shape, so that when it was 'Judgment Day' he would certainly win. He grabbed his bucket to do his daily watering. But at least the water was warmer now. Bartz had sometimes seen Tony around the castle, but not much since Bartz was trying so hard to grow his plants.  
  
'Any day now...' he thought as he lugged the bucket full of water up the hill, 'any day now and the judges will come and taste the food.' When he had finished, he looked up to see some people walking towards his humble garden. 'Oh, not now...'  
  
And sure enough it was the judges coming to take his plants away. There were three of them: Anne, Thomas, and Roland. Bartz blinked at the last one. 'Roland? Why him?'  
  
"Good morning Bartz." Thomas called out as the small group came closer, "We need to take some of your plants and get back to the Tavern. That's where the judging is taking place. So would you care to pick some for us?" Thomas motioned towards the garden.  
  
Bartz nodded, bending down to pick some choice vegetables. After he had placed them carefully into the basked that Anne was holding; the Karayan spoke up.  
  
"Are you coming to the judging? It might help with the judging, you never know..." Bartz just nodded, too stressed out to say anything.  
  
So the four people walked off towards the Tavern, that sounded quiet noisy, especially for this early in the morning. Upon walking into the room the noise level doubled. It seemed that almost the whole population had turned out for the judging; after all they wanted to know what happened first hand.  
  
Tony was already at the front, behind one of the two tables, food in front of him. 'Obviously his plants.' Bartz thought as he made his way to the empty table on the stage. Looking around he saw another table where four stars were sitting. 'The judges...' He thought as he set up his produce, as if he were going to sell it.  
  
All of a sudden Nadir walks out from behind the curtain, "Welcome everyone, we all know why we are here, so now the naming of the judges." Everyone remained quiet. "From the left we have Chris: the Silver Maiden of Zexen, and also acting captain of the Zexen Knights." All the Zexens cheered while the Grasslanders just sat there mumbling about how evil they had been to the Grasslands before.  
  
"And beside Lady Chris we have our very own Dragon Knight, Futch!" More cheering, after all, it was a morning free of work.  
  
"Then we have Lucia, the Chief of the Karaya Clan." Much louder cheering, mostly from the Grasslanders.  
  
"And last but not least..." began Nadir, "We have Elder Viki!" Some people clapped, but mostly everyone blinked. Almost confused as the judge herself.  
  
"What am I here for?" Viki blinked, but Nadir just ignored her, and continued.  
  
"Now, for the first Produce, we have: Tomatoes made by Tony!" at that point some random people from the crowd passed out some tomatoes to the judges. "And the scores are: 3 4 4 and 3!"  
  
Everyone clapped, "And now for Bartz'!" The judges ate the tomatoes. "The scores: 2 5 4 3!"  
  
And the rest is as follows: For the second round (corn) Tony: 2 5 5 1. Bartz: 3 4 5 1. And the third round (beans) Tony: 3 3 3 3. Bartz: 3 4 5 3. Nadir cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention, "The results are as follows: Tony has 39 points! While Bartz has...42! And the winner is: our very own farmer: Bartz!" Many people cheered. (For they liked Bartz in the first place, even if they thought that he was a little weird.)  
  
Nadir turned to Tony, who was still smiling, "Well good try, but I guess you don't get to be our farmer. But I heard that there was a small town in Harmonia that needed a farmer, so maybe you should try there." And turning to the audience, "and we will see you next time on Who's Food is Better©!"  
  
And with that people starting filing out, as Bartz sat there, dazed. But he soon snapped out of it, and smiled, "I knew that you wouldn't let me down my pretties!" And he walked out of the Tavern, one of the happiest men alive. For he had kept his job, and he knew that he was better than that Tony.  
  
Karana: I hope you guys didn't think that I stopped it too soon, but it wasn't going to be long in the first place. REVIEW PLEASE AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! 


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